Born in a fishing village in Awa (Chiba), to a fisherman's family, it is said. He described himself as "a son of lowly folk by the sea".
At 11 he entered nearby Kiyosumi-dera to study. He is said to have prayed to become the wisest person in Japan.
At 15 he was formally ordained. Wondering which school's teaching was truly right, he resolved to travel in search of the answer.
From around this time he studied the sutras for over a decade in Kamakura, on Mount Hiei, in Nara and elsewhere (dates debated), growing convinced that the Lotus Sutra was the supreme teaching.
At 31 he returned to Kiyosumi-dera and preached chanting the daimoku "Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō". His fierce criticism of the nenbutsu angered the local lord and he was driven out. He went to Kamakura and preached on street corners.
A great earthquake struck Kamakura, followed by famine and epidemics. Seeing so much suffering, he searched the sutras for its cause and remedy.
He presented the Risshō Ankoku Ron to former regent Hōjō Tokiyori, warning that without the true teaching the land would suffer internal strife and foreign invasion. Angry nenbutsu followers attacked his hut (Matsubagayatsu persecution).
The shogunate exiled him to Izu; he was pardoned after about two years.
Returning to Awa, he was ambushed by the jitō Tōjō Kagenobu and others; he was wounded on the forehead and disciples lost their lives.
When the Yuan letter arrived, he declared the warning of the Risshō Ankoku Ron fulfilled and wrote again to the shogunate and temples.
Arrested by the shogunate, he was about to be beheaded at Tatsunokuchi in Kamakura, but a mysterious light reportedly appeared and the execution was halted. He was then exiled to Sado, spending harsh winters in a bare hall amid the snow.
On Sado he wrote the Kaimokushō, declaring his resolve to spread the Lotus Sutra whatever hardships came.
On Sado he wrote the Kanjin no Honzon Shō, setting out the object of devotion for chanting the daimoku.
Pardoned, he returned to Kamakura and warned the shogunate a third time, in vain. He withdrew to Mount Minobu in Kai (Yamanashi) to train disciples. That autumn the Yuan invaded (Bun'ei invasion).
Ill, he left Minobu to seek treatment at a hot spring but died on the way at Ikegami in Musashi (Tokyo), aged 60, watched over by his disciples. Six senior disciples carried on his teaching.
HōnenMinamoto no YoritomoHōjō MasakoMinamoto no YoshitsuneShinranHōjō YasutokiDōgenHōjō Tokimune
People of the Kamakura period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.